Friday, August 3, 2012

Doodle 003 - Opossum story time

Wow what a week... work was more than stressful, but the weekend has arrived, sound the trumpets! Strike up the band! Throw small children and cats into the air! (Just be careful catching the cats on the way down, they have a lot of pointy ends and dislike being thrown).

Today I did more quick animal drawing. I picked a random otter photo and did a quick sketch, then a random opossum photo and developed that one a bit more.

Otters are one of my favorite animals, hummingbirds being my number one favorite, followed by otters and cats. I am a swimmer and a bit of an odd silly cookie, so otters fit my personality just fine... plus they are stinking cute and sleep linking their paws together for maximum proshness.

Opossums on the other hand... sometimes can be kinda cute, but I'll always remember how freaked out I was the first time I saw one. I have always been a big city girl you see, the wildest animals I was used to were sparrows, pigeons and squirrels (my long fuzzy tailed nemesis, but I digress).

When I moved to Tallahassee from Madrid, Spain, I was expecting a big city "It is the capital of Florida after all!" I thought to myself, haha! Sucker! What I found was a forest with a small town nestled in it. The first time I ventured to throw the trash out in the middle of the night I was greeted by, what back then, I thought was an irradiated mutant animal escaped from the ruins of a leaking nuclear reactor.

The thing was ugly as get out, had a rather pointy row of crooked teeth, a very long snout opened up and was hissing at me menacingly while it swished its gigantic rat-looking tail.

I pretty much placed the trash bag slowly on the ground and backed away carefully with my hands up as if it were a mugger brandishing a knife and demanding spoiled left overs while wondering if I could outrun it or if I would need to fight it off while hoping Andrei would hear the scuffle and run to my aid armed with a big stick.

Ah yeah, good times.

Otter sketch from photo 5 minutes on plain moleskin

Opossum sketch from photo 10 minutes on plain moleskin

6 comments:

TC said...

LOVE the Otter sketch. You are so talented!

Anissa said...

Ooh I adore otters (followed only be cats)!!! This one made my day!

MichelleH said...

Love the little otter - he looks ready to move!

Cranky Amy said...

Heh, that possum reminds me of the Geico commercial: http://commercialsociety.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/geico-a-pet-possum-is-cheaper-than-a-puppy/

I have absolutely no art background, but these are lovely. Keep it up!

Leigh Ann said...

Haha! "irradiated mutant animal escaped from the ruins of a leaking nuclear reactor" is an excellent description of a 'possum. They can have their moments, but mostly they are hideous, terrifying looking creatures. At least I live in the country so have never been surprised by one. Your drawing certainly gives him some unexpected dignity. Thanks for sharing.

Tarsier said...

Love, love, love the otter! He's adorable, but very elegant at the same time.

And the opossum is pretty darn cute for an "irradiated mutant animal escaped from the ruins of a leaking nuclear reactor." :) (awesome description, btw)

I look forward to following your blog, you are incredibly talented!